McCain admits to pandering on taxes: ‘I have to be against tax increases, as you know.’
McCain admits to pandering on taxes: ‘I have to be against tax increases, as you know.’
Last month, after incurring the wrath of hardline anti-tax conservatives for saying that tax increases weren’t “off the table” for fixing Social Security, he caved to his base and made “an updated version” of George H. W. Bush’s infamous “Read my lips, no new taxes” pledge. In Aspen yesterday, McCain admitted that he was in a box on Social Security and taxes, saying, “I have to be against tax increases, as you know“:
McCain has called for a bipartisan effort to fix Social Security and infuriated some conservatives by saying that everything, including increasing payroll taxes, could be on the table. He said today that “you know I’m opposed to tax increases” when Isaacson asked him about it. “I think I can convince people on the other side of the table that we do not need tax increases.”
When Isaacson said the proposal would have to be on the table to be negotiated off the table, McCain drew a smattering of laughter when he said “I have to be against tax increases, as you know.”
McCain is stuck in the “rhetorical trap” of conservative anti-tax fundamentalism, which, as Matthew Yglesias explains, is denial of policy reality based on having “spent the past 30 years trying to convince people that any hint of tax increase for any purpose is the purest evil.”
UPDATE: Watch McCain admit his pandering:
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Distancing himself, from himself, once again.
August 15th, 2008 at 2:36 pmMcPutz admits to pandering on taxes.
and to ‘Agents of Intolerance(the religious right)
August 15th, 2008 at 2:38 pmand to neo-Nazi neocons
and to bigots
and to hate-mongers
and to red-necks
and to the scum of our society
and to the radical reich-wing nuts
and to___________________(fill in the blank)
#1 but Pete — doncha know, according to McCain’s campaign, McCain doesn’t speak for the campaign.
What a wonderful circle jerk of denial plausibility!
August 15th, 2008 at 2:40 pmjohn mcCrazy: who am i & where am i going?
August 15th, 2008 at 2:40 pmMcCain admits to pandering on taxes: ‘I have to be against tax increases, as you know.’
– - The cachet of Maverickiness is fading faster.
August 15th, 2008 at 2:42 pmHmmm…is today an even day or an odd day? Isn’t McSame all about “tax increases are evil” on odd days? I think it’s on even days that he wants to spend money on more wars.
August 15th, 2008 at 2:43 pmpete Says:
Distancing himself, from himself, once again.
And it is working with about a 1/3 of the polled voters; they fully understand his (many) conflicting opinions and assume that with all the spin, somehow they will get what they want.
Another Dubya, only dumber.
August 15th, 2008 at 2:48 pmWOW!
You go O.M. (Original Maverick)!
You go!
misshusseinmolly,
August 15th, 2008 at 2:48 pmI pretty darn sure O.M. doesn’t even know what day it is, let alone which day to flip and which day to flop!
Grampy McSame says – My friends back in the day we didn’t need taxes, everyone that counted had plenty of shells, we all stood on our own 2 feet and knuckles, when people got old we would put them on small boats and push them off to sea, no need for any of this ridiculous social security stuff, anyone with have a brain knows that all you have to do is marry someone rich with shells, like I did, is that so hard, if your married to someone not rich, well then just put her on a small boat and push her out to sea, I know who my friends are and they don’t like contributing to society at all, to hell with the have-nots, not having is their problem, I’m gonna have Cindy dance topless on the white house lawn when elected…give her a couple pills and she’ll dance all night….I got a potato in my pants.
Yeah, we know you pander to idiots who are fascist, anti-American scum, sort of like the trolls we have here, just your type, uneducated, reich-trash, bigots.
August 15th, 2008 at 2:49 pmMcCain is stuck in the “rhetorical trap” of conservative anti-tax fundamentalism, which, as Matthew Yglesias explains, is denial of policy reality based on having “spent the past 30 years trying to convince people that any hint of tax increase for any purpose is the purest evil.”
Objectively observing the state of the national, civil infrastructure, the economy, the wealth gap, the property gap, and the rest of the chaos that is the detritus of Reaganism, you’d have to say they’ve been pretty damn successful, have looted just about everything that was of any worth, and are now setting fire to the feed stocks to cover their retreat.
And getting away with it,
August 15th, 2008 at 2:50 pmgod-forever-damn-them-and-us
cuz we let ‘em.
Meanwhile…
Flippy McSpin says: “My friends. I’m so phucking confused. Help me”!
August 15th, 2008 at 2:51 pmOh oh, another mcstake.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:02 pmIf they’d stop putting a cap on the amount of SS taxes paid, there wouldn’t be a problem, would there?
August 15th, 2008 at 3:04 pmSorta sounds like McFlipFlop is wavering and quavering and vacillating and denying and pandering and resolute/irresolute. That way he can’t be pinned down on how he voted. He’s the Un-Decider dude.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:07 pmIs it just me or does McStain look like he’s about to service his master in that picture?
August 15th, 2008 at 3:14 pmCaption: I’ll have to use my mouth sir, my arm won’t raise that high.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:16 pmTo be fair, he might have just been giving him an old fashioned shoeshine.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:20 pmMaybe he’s helping him with his post-pee dribble. Maybe they’re post-pee dribble buddies.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:23 pmSo is he saying now that what he says is not really what he means? Is he saying that he simply has to “say the right things” even if he doesn’t mean it, and all will be well?
August 15th, 2008 at 3:25 pm-
Honestly, how can anyone trust anything that he says?
Hussein McCain Says:
To be fair, he might have just been giving him an old fashioned shoeshine.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Nah. He had to close his pitch when he ran out of neutral polish. His customers are all afraid of anything colored.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:25 pmCaption:
“My friend. Let me show you how we shake hands in the GOP”.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:27 pmCaption:
“Is that a little boy standing behind you? You shouldn’t have…I’m so grateful!”
August 15th, 2008 at 3:30 pmAh geez. It seems the TP moderators don’t like the biology words. Let’s try this again…
“That looks sort of like a “wee-wee” only smaller”
August 15th, 2008 at 3:30 pmI am just curious. Has anyone ever been sent to moderation and come out “rejuvenated”? It seems a weird purgatory where they never say oh, this is not an issue, the poster just typed “a knoll eh sis” or something like that… I am thinking moderation might be better called “carrousel”
August 15th, 2008 at 3:42 pmMcCain admits to pandering on taxes
Q: What do you call it when “McCain” and “pandering” are used in the same sentence?
A: Redundant
August 15th, 2008 at 3:48 pmRun, Logan 5, before the Sandmen get you!
August 15th, 2008 at 3:50 pmTP should have a separate forum for “name that photo caption”
August 15th, 2008 at 4:01 pmMy evil mind run amok when I see material like this.
“Touch It? They’ll have to pry it from my dead cold hand”
August 15th, 2008 at 4:04 pmIgnoranceIsNotBliss Says:
If they’d stop putting a cap on the amount of SS taxes paid, there wouldn’t be a problem, would there?
But…but…but… that would be raising taxes. Just like allowing the Bush tax cuts for the very rich to expire is “raising taxes”. No matter that it is really just taking them back to where they were before. If there’s a change in the amount of taxes a rich person pays and it’s more than they paid the last time, then their “taxes were raised”.
August 15th, 2008 at 4:06 pmdbadass Says:
I am just curious. Has anyone ever been sent to moderation and come out “rejuvenated”?
Try typing something with a swear word in it. Those just go poof, no moderation, no nothing, just poof.
August 15th, 2008 at 4:08 pmshit ass damn
August 15th, 2008 at 4:11 pmWow but still “a nal ee sis” is a no go…
August 15th, 2008 at 4:12 pmNever, in the an@ls of political an@lysis, has there been anything as silly as forbidding the various forms of an@l.
August 15th, 2008 at 4:16 pmpete,
August 15th, 2008 at 4:27 pmI always wondered where the adjective an@l came from, perhaps it comes from perceiving that those described that way as being overly an@ytical? I always thought that the work an@l was used to describe those who give too much attention to details!
Steve Benen has been keeping an unofficial list of McCain flip-flops and is up to 72. You know, the straight talk express…
August 15th, 2008 at 4:27 pmhttp://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/flipflops
mary Says:
pete,
I always wondered where the adjective an@l came from, perhaps it comes from perceiving that those described that way as being overly an@ytical? I always thought that the work an@l was used to describe those who give too much attention to details!
August 15th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
I’ve never understood the phenomenon myself. But hey! Who would have thought that the “an@l retentive” conservatives we worried about in the 80’s would have ended up as reckless radicals who spend like drunken sailors?
August 15th, 2008 at 4:37 pmpete Says:
I always wondered where the adjective an@l came from,
It’s a Freud thing.
August 15th, 2008 at 4:43 pmMeaning that person is the result of poor potty training.
August 15th, 2008 at 4:45 pmWiki:
August 15th, 2008 at 4:50 pmFreud theorized that children who experience conflicts during this period of time may develop “an@l” personality traits, namely those associated with a child’s efforts at excretory control: orderliness, stubbornness, a compulsion for control,[1] as well as a generalized interest in collecting, possessing, and retaining objects.[2] Those whose an@l characteristics continue into later life are said to be “an@l retentive”, or conversely, those who reject an@l characteristics are said to have “an@l expulsive” personality types.
That John McCain is such a maverick. He has backtracked on every single item that could conceivably be considered maverick in nature. You sure showed us John. The sucking sound is deafening.
August 15th, 2008 at 4:55 pmMcCain panders more than Bush did/does! Maybe he thinks that if he panders hard enough he’ll be able to get to a place where people pander to him!
Considering that Bush agreed to oust Hussein as part of his pandering, I wonder what McCain has already agreed to do.
August 15th, 2008 at 5:10 pmAudio proof of McCain’s admitted pandering!
August 15th, 2008 at 6:34 pmThe lack of intellect will doom McCain in the end!
Phil Gramm only repeated what John McCain has said publicly in the past.
Its all in your head folks!
John McCain said the economic downturn is psychological. Having on multiple occasions admitted his limited understanding of the economy, Senator McCain instead turned armchair psychologist to diagnose the U.S economic slowdown. In April, McCain told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto that a lot of our problems today, as you know, are psychological. Apparently, seven months of job losses, oil at $140 a barrel, record gas prices at the pump, 47 million uninsured and a devastating home foreclosure crisis are merely figments of Americans’ imaginations.
August 15th, 2008 at 7:45 pm